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Marv Wolfman
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Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.
man was active in fandom before he broke into professional comics at DC in 1968. (For instance, in the November 1966 issue of Marvel's Tales of Suspense (#83), a fan letter written by Wolfman was printed concerning the hate and bigotry represented by the character of the Red Skull.)
Wolfman was one of the first to publish Stephen King, with "In A Half-World of Terror" (in Wolfman's horror fanzine Stories of Suspense #2, 1965).
974, Wolfman moved to Marvel Comics as protégés of then-editor Roy Thomas.
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Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.
Biography
1960s
Wolfman was active in fandom before he broke into professional comics at DC in 1968. (For instance, in the November 1966 issue of Marvel's Tales of Suspense (#83), a fan letter written by Wolfman was printed concerning the hate and bigotry represented by the character of the Red Skull.)
Wolfman was one of the first to publish Stephen King, with "In A Half-World of Terror" (in Wolfman's horror fanzine Stories of Suspense #2, 1965).
1970s
In 1974, Wolfman moved to Marvel Comics as protégés of then-editor Roy Thomas. When Thomas stepped down, Wolfman eventually took over as editor, initially in charge of the black and white magazines then finally the color line of comics.
One innovation which Wolfman instituted was the "warehouse story"; when writers and artists missed deadlines, it cost Marvel a great deal of money to delay the release of a scheduled issue, and using reprints to tread water wasn't as appealing to readers. So, Wolfman had various creative teams produce complete stories for various titles, which were then stored for possible later use if a book went off schedule, allowing the editor to keep the book on track with an entirely original story that wouldn't alienate readers.
Because Marvel was producing an ever-expanding line of comics, Wolfman found it difficult to both supervise their titles and still write comics. He opted to step down as editor-in-chief in order to spend more time editing and writing.
While at Marvel Wolfman wrote lengthy runs of Amazing Spider-Man (where he co-created the Black Cat); Fantastic Four; and Doctor Strange. He created Nova in that character's eponymous first issue. In 1978, Wolfman also took over writing the Howard the Duck syndicated newspaper comic strip, which adapted several stories from the original Steve Gerber-written comics.
His best-received work was The Tomb of Dracula, a fledgling horror comic which in his six years as writer Wolfman turned into a rich, complex piece of high gothic, well matched with the moody shade-and-light pencilling of Gene Colan. Taking Bram Stoker's basic story, Wolfman created his own vampire mythology and introduced a set of new characters, including Blade.
1980s
In 1980, Wolfman returned to DC after a dispute with new Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who offered to renew Wolfman's contract as a writer, but not as an editor. (As an editor, Wolfman had hired Shooter at Marvel). Teaming with penciller George Pérez, he relaunched DC's Teen Titans. The New Teen Titans added the Wolfman-Pérez creations Raven, Starfire and Cyborg to the old team's Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash and Beast Boy (renamed Changeling). The series became DC's first new hit in years, and its first serious competitor to Marvel since the early 1970s.
During the early 1980s Wolfman also collaborated with artist Gil Kane on a run on Superman, rejoined Colan (who had also moved to DC) on the short-lived Night Force, and worked with Carmine Infantino on a revival of Dial H for Hero.
In 1985, Wolfman and Pérez launched Crisis on Infinite Earths, a 12-issue limited series celebrating DC's 50th anniversary. Featuring a cast of thousands and a timeline that ranged from the beginning of the universe to the end of time, it killed scores of characters, integrated a number of heroes from other companies to DC continuity, and re-wrote 50 years of DC universe history in order to streamline it.
Wolfman was also involved in the DC Comics relaunch of the Superman line, reinventing nemesis Lex Luthor and initially scripting the Adventures of Superman title.
After Pérez left The New Teen Titans in 1986, Wolfman continued with other collaborators — including pencillers Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Eduardo Barreto and Tom Grummett— but never enjoyed the same level of commercial or critical success. It was around this time that Wolfman had begun a brief run on the Batman titles, most notably creating Robin III Tim Drake and writing an anniversary adaptation of the first ever Batman story which was printed along with two other adaptations and the original.
Wolfman got into disputes with DC over a proposed ratings system, and finally, after several years, asked to be taken off the title and put onto another book.
1990s and 2000s
During 1990s Wolfman's writing for comics decreased as he turned to animation and television, though he wrote the mid-1990s DC series The Man Called A-X.
A decade later, Wolfman began writing in comics again, scripting Defex, the flagship title of Devil's Due Productions' Aftermath line. He also wrote an "Infinite Crisis" issue of DC's "Secret Files", and consulted with writer Geoff Johns on several issues of The Teen Titans.
Wolfman also wrote a novel based on Crisis on Infinite Earths, but rather than following the original plot, he created a new story starring the Barry Allen Flash that takes place during the original Crisis story. Wolfman wrote the novelization of the film Superman Returns, and worked on a direct-to-video animated movie, Condor, for Stan Lee's Pow Entertainment.
In 2006, Wolfman was editorial director of Impact Comics, publisher of educational manga-style comics for high school students.
In 2006, starting with issue #125, Wolfman began writing DC's Nightwing series. Initially scheduled for a four-issue run, Wolfman's run was expanded greatly, and finished with issue #137. During the course of his run, Wolfman introduced a new Vigilante character. Following Wolfman's departure from the pages of Nightwing, Vigilante will be spun off into his own ongoing title, which Wolfman will write. He will also pen a miniseries starring the Teen Titan Raven, a character he and Perez co-created during their run on the New Teen Titans. He is also currently working with Pérez on a direct-to-DVD movie adaptation of the popular "Judas Contract" storyline from their tenure on Teen Titans.
Personal life
Wolfman is married to Noel Watkins, who was very active in the Texas A&M University student organization Cepheid Variable and the science fiction convention Cepheid runs, AggieCon.
Wolfman was previously married to Michele Wolfman, for many years a colorist in the comics industry. They have a daughter, Jessica Morgan.
Writing credit pioneer
Wolfman, on the panel "Marvel Comics: The Method and the Madness" at the 1974 New York Comic Art Convention, told the audience that when he first began working for DC, he received DC's first writing credit on their mystery magazines. In those days Gerry Conway wrote pages between the actual stories which had the book's hosts tell you what was coming up. In one, knowing Marv wrote the next story, Conway wrote that the following story was told to him by a "wandering Wolfman." The comics code, which did not permit the mention of werewolves or wolfmen, demanded it be removed. DC informed the code authority that the Wolfman in question was Marv's real name, so the code insisted that he be given a credit to show the Wolfman in question was a real person and not a monster. Once Wolfman was given a credit, the other writers demanded them too. Shortly, credits were given to all writers and artists.
Awards
- Wolfman won the Shazam Award for Best Writer (Humor Division) in 1973.
- He was nominated at the Eagle Awards for Favourite Writer in 1978 and 1986 and won the 1982 Best New Book Award and 1984 Best Group Book Award for New Teen Titans
- He was nominated for the Comics' Buyer's Guide Award for Favorite Writer in 1986, and his work on the "Batman: Year Three" story arc in Batman #436-439 was nominated Comics' Buyer's Guide Favorite Writer Award in 1990.
- In 2007 Wolfman won the "Scribe" Award, given by writers of novelization and tie-in fiction for his novel based on Superman Returns.
- In 2008 Wolfman's nonfiction book Homeland, The Illustrated History of the State of Israel won the prestigious National Jewish Book Award as well as many others.
Characters Created by Wolfman
Footnotes
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